September 30, 2010

Halloween? Yay!! Christmas? WHAT?! I can NOT believe when I went shopping last night, Halloween stuff was on clearance to make way for Christmas decor. I threw up in my mouth a little. Then I went home, and fretted over what I am making/buying for the holidays.

My friend received an awesome gift from her aunt after her recent wedding, a cookbook containing family recipes and memories. After flipping through it - I would love to create the same tradition for my family. Having six aunts, my mother, grandmother, and cousins/sisters - we have dozens of favorite meals when it comes to the holidays/birthdays/family functions. Why not create a binder to store all of our family classics?

I searched the blogs (my favorite) for inspiration of how to set this project up. Here is what I came up with:

Family Cookbook: Each page should contain a recipe, varied ideas and notes, and perhaps a picture of a family member taken within the last year(or perhaps what event the recipe is from!). However, I don't think each recipe will have a picture - because it might look too busy. Each year (or every other year) I could continue to add to the binder, typing up new recipes that we've tried for that year and adding new pictures. I think using a large binder, divided into sections (appetizers, meat, desserts, etc.) would work. Perhaps actually making use of the sheet protectors I have stored in the basement will make it spill proof? I'll have to figure out a system to date each recipe of when it was submitted so we know when it was added and who added them!

Have to figure out how I am going to organize my recipes...and what program I am going to use to format them. I sent an email to nine women in our family, and asked them for their top 5 favorite recipes, or what they are known for (what people request most often). I didn't give them any hints of why I needed them, as I wanted to make it a surprise. I am thinking that for the first year, I won't add too many pictures or stories because I would rather people add what they want without letting on to what I am creating for Christmas.

About Me

My name is Kara and I am happily married to my husband Bryan. I am a special education teacher and mom to two boys (soon to be 3 kids!). I love my creative side and enjoy photography, scrapbooking or anything to stimulate my creative juices.
LIKES/LOVES: reading,writing, poetry, drinking a few, movies, GyM,pretending I have artistic abilities, procrasinating, making todo lists then ripping then up or crossing them off